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Natural Environment White Paper House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Natural Environment White Paper Written Evidence Only those submissions written specifically for the Committee and accepted by the Committee as evidence for the inquiry Natural Environment White Paper are included. 1 List of written evidence 1 British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) 2 Countryside Alliance 3 Soil Association 3A Soil Association (further submission) 4 The Open Spaces Society 4A The Open Spaces Society (further submission) 5 Landscape Institute 5A Landscape Institute (further submission) 6 British Ecological Society 7 Plantlife 7A Plantlife (further submission) 8 Food Ethics Council 9 Centre for Ecology & Hydrology 10 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) 10A Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) (further submission) 11 Woodland Trust 11A Woodland Trust (further submission) 12 Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) 12A Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) (further submission) 13 Campaign for National Parks 14 Friends of the Earth England 15 London Wildlife Trust 16 Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), the Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) and Linking Environment and Farming (LEAF) 17 English Heritage 18 Field Studies Council 19 Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) 19A Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) (further submission) 20 Local Government Association (LGA) 20A Local Government Association (LGA) (further submission) 21 Food and Drink Federation 22 National Farmers’ Union (NFU) 22A National Farmers’ Union (NFU) (further submission) 22B National Farmers’ Union (NFU) (supplementary submission) 23 Ofwat 23A Ofwat (further submission) 24 Country Land and Business Association (CLA) 24A Country Land and Business Association (CLA) (further submission) 25 National Trust 2 25A National Trust (further submission) 26 Water UK 26A Water UK (further submission) 27 The Ramblers 27A The Ramblers (further submission) 28 Ewan Larcombe, Leader of the National Flood Prevention Party 29 Research Councils UK (RCUK) 29A Research Councils UK (RCUK) (further submission) 30 Heritage Lottery Fund 31 Natural History Museum 31A Natural History Museum (further submission) 32 International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) 33 British Mountaineering Council 34 WWF-UK 34A WWF-UK (further submission) 35 Wildlife and Countryside Link 35A Wildlife and Countryside Link (further submission) 36 CEMEX UK 37 The Wildlife Trusts 37A The Wildlife Trusts (further submission) 38 Central Association of Agricultural Valuers 39 British Standards Institution (BSI) 40 Professor Colin Reid 41 The Peak District Green Lane Alliance 42 Confor 43 Consumer Council for Water 44 GreenLINK 45 England and Wales Wildfire Forum 46 ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society (EGENIS), University of Exeter 47 RenewableUK 48 Institute of Chartered Foresters 49 Association of Electricity Producers (AEP) 50 Northumbrian Water Ltd 51 UK Environmental Law Association (UKELA) 52 Anglian Water 53 Hampshire County Council 54 EDF Energy 55 Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (IEEM) 56 The Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) 57 The National Federation for Biological Recording (NFBR) 58 Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) 59 James Del Mar 60 Miss Maria Crastus 61 The Forest Town Nature Conservation Group (FTNCG) 3 62 Balfour Beatty 63 British Aggregates Association 63A Paul Allison, British Aggregates Association (supplementary submission) 64 Mineral Products Association 65 The Environment Bank Ltd 65A The Environment Bank Ltd (supplementary submission) 66 United Utilities Group (supplementary submission) 67 Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Natural Environment Research Council 68 Association of Local Government Ecologists (ALGE) 69 HM Treasury (supplementary submission) 4 Written evidence submitted by the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) (NEWP 01) Shooters can help the government realise its ambitions but there is no mention of shooting in the white paper. This is a major omission and the EFRA committee should recommend that Defra rectifies this situation, drawing on the following five points: 1. Shooting in the UK is involved in the management of two-thirds of the rural land area. Two million hectares are actively managed for conservation. Shoot providers spend £250 million a year on conservation and in total, shooting is worth £1.6 billion [GVA] to the UK economy. These figures are taken from the independent study The Economic and Environmental Impact of Sporting Shooting2. This is a staggering amount of land, illustrated by the fact that shooters in the south east of England manage three times more land than all the land managed by the Wildlife Trusts across the UK. 2. Land managed for shooting contains a wealth of wildlife. As part of its Green Shoots2 project BASC has surveyed over 7,700 sq km of land managed by BASC members in Northern Ireland, North Wales, Cheshire, Somerset Levels and Dorset. From these surveys BASC members have generated over 52,000 new records for species and habitats of conservation concern, transforming the conservation community’s knowledge of their distribution and status. 3. Shooters are successful at partnership working to achieve landscape scale improvements to our natural environment. In Cheshire BASC members are working together with Cheshire’s Biodiversity Partnership to create 17 km of linked hedgerow and woodland to link together two isolated dormouse populations. Stretching from the Somerset Levels to the south coast BASC members have created a landscape level lifeline for the water vole by working with Natural England, the Environment Agency and Somerset/Dorset Wildlife Trusts to control mink and improve water vole friendly habitats. Four independent studies have shown unprecedented increases in the water vole population due to this project. 4. Shooters create recreational opportunities. BASC has developed the £1.6 million Country Sports South West project to help rural businesses which offer country sporting activities with marketing and delivery of a quality product. The team also provide advice on starting new sporting enterprises. The project is supported by the South West RDA, Defra and West Country Rivers Trust. 5. Shooters can help the government realise its ambitions. Shooters have been conserving wildlife for hundreds of years. They understand that a healthy quarry population relies upon good quality habitat and this concept remains at the heart of sporting shooter’s ethos today. Shooters work hard to help the environment yet they rarely see any statutory recognition of that work. This government must redress the balance and a good starting point some recognition of shooting is needed in the Natural Environment White Paper. 1 www.shootingfacts.co.uk 2 www.basc.org.uk/en/conservation/green-shoots/ 16 June 2011 Written evidence submitted by Countryside Alliance (NEWP 02) The Countryside Alliance is the major British campaigning organisation on rural issues. With over 105,000 members the Countryside Alliance defends and promotes the rural way of life. The Countryside Alliance welcomes this opportunity to respond to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee’s call for evidence on the Natural Environment White Paper (NEWP). David Cameron came to power promising to deliver the greenest government ever and with the publishing of The Natural Choice, the first White Paper on the natural environment in 20 years, we see an agenda for a flourishing future for the natural environment. This is a much needed start in repairing the damage which has been done to the environment in the recent past, in the absence of an overarching strategy across Government. While the Countryside Alliance recognises there is much to be welcomed in the NEWP we feel that the White Paper fails to acknowledge the role rural communities are already playing in managing the natural environment. Any key elements in the White Paper which are supported; 1. The Countryside Alliance welcomes in particular the encouraging statements about the importance of outdoor learning. We have long campaigned for greater freedom to get children out of the classroom and into the countryside. Our research has shown that 85 per cent of children and young people want to take part in countryside activities at school, and 97 per cent of teachers surveyed believed it is important for children to learn about the countryside within the National Curriculum. 2. However, Defra’s clear commitment to learning outside the classroom in the NEWP needs to be endorsed and supported by the Department for Education. Any particular sections which could be improved; 3. While the Countryside Alliance recognises there is much to be welcomed in the NEWP we feel that the White Paper fails to acknowledge the role rural communities are already playing in managing the natural environment. 4. The countryside is not an ‘experiment’ or recreational area; it is a fully functioning and evolving environment which covers our country in its many varied forms. Management has to be local in order to remain sustainable and cannot be the result of centrally imposed diktats or targets. The vital importance of localism has always been key to the ethos of the Countryside Alliance; a belief in empowering people to take care of their own environment and reap the benefits of their labours. 5. The White Paper claims that ‘nature is sometimes taken for granted and undervalued’, but this is simply not the case for those thousands of individuals
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